Supersonic car's Wrexham visit a huge hit

Hundreds of students, schoolchildren and members of the public visited Glyndŵr University to catch a glimpse of a full-scale prototype of a car designed to break the world land speed record.

The team behind the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) were in Wrexham for a two-day visit, during which they gave a public lecture, hosted a business breakfast and led workshops with children from local schools.

They also brought with them a full scale prototype of the car which was displayed in the university’s engineering lab.

Event organiser Katie Dutton said: “Bloodhound SSC is one of the most exciting engineering projects in the world at the moment and the team’s visit was a real coup for Wrexham Science Festival.

“It really captivated everyone in Wrexham. We had over 500 people at a public lecture delivered by Bloodhound’s project director Richard Noble and lots of requests from people eager to come and view the prototype.”

Bloodhound SSC will attempt to reach speeds of more than 1000 mph in South Africa in 2013.

The project started in 2008 as part of a government drive to inspire young people to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

The Bloodhound team has visited more than 5,000 schools and colleges to date, sharing information about the science and innovation which is underpinning the land-speed record attempt.

The hardware for the rocket which will power Bloodhound is being manufactured in Wrexham.

Rocket scientist Daniel Jubb led a talk about the design of the rocket and Wrexham’s connection to the project at a business breakfast on Thursday, 25 November.

He said: “I think one of the really rewarding things about Bloodhound is that it does inspire kids. You can talk to kids about a lot of things and they just get bored and switch off. But with this they are hungry to find out more and more – and that can only be good for the future of science and engineering in the UK.”

Bloodhound’s visit to Wrexham was part of the Wrexham Science Festival. To find out more about the festival and news about events for 2012 as they’re announced visit www.wrexhamsf.com or follow on twitter @wrexhamscifest.